A sea of seats and just 11 flyers: Airlines’ woes dwarf US aid

Miguel Diaz’s JetBlue flight from New York to Orlando cost just $79 with a checked bag and was nearly empty. The 11 passengers each had a row of seats to themselves, spaced at least six feet apart to maintain high-altitude social distancing. “The entire experience was luxurious,” the 30-year-old Queens librarian said. He was one of 279,018 people who passed through security at a US airport Tuesday -- compared with 2.2m on the same day a year ago. With the coronavirus pandemic shrinking the number of passengers, now down more than 90%, some US airlines have announced plans to cut as many as eight out of 10 flights in coming months. That’s got them and their employees anticipating a $61b aviation aid package in the $2t economic rescue bill signed Friday by President Donald Trump. The bailout is designed to avert thousands of layoffs but it won’t solve the industry’s biggest problem: A lack of passengers. Carriers have cut food and drink service with only canned or bottled water available on request in some cases. And with passenger cabins flying almost empty, airlines are turning to freight operations. American Airlines has started parcels-only flights for the first time in 36 years and Delta has expanded charter freight operations. Yet the potential for months-long disruptions far outweigh what the industry faced after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “You can’t cut a plane in half,” said Michael Ball, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “You cut your level of service, but you have to maintain your basic routes and your network.”<br/>